Members of the public, along with Mayor of Taunton Deane Cllr Hazel Prior-Sankey, Wellington Mayor Cllr Gary James, local councillors and officers and members of the Royal British Legion Wellington branch, gathered at Wellington Baptist Church to dedicate Wellington’s Field of Remembrance.

The service was led by the Rev Sam Griffiths, during which a two-minute silence was held. That began when branch president Michael Rose gave the Exhortation and the Wellington branch standard was dipped. The service concluded when branch chairman Ray Filler gave the Kohima.

This was followed by the laying of individual wooden crosses of remembrance, led by the Taunton Deane and Wellington mayors. Their’s and many other people’s crosses were added to the 96 crosses of remembrance, previously laid, each one representing a name on the war memorial in Wellington Park.

The RBL Wellington branch would like to remind people that once Remembrance time has concluded this year the crosses will be taken from the Field of Remembrance, and along with those previously laid on the war graves in Wellington Cemetery by the children from Rockwell Green Primary School, they will be carefully incinerated and their ashes scattered onto Wellington’s Garden of Remembrance at the park.

The RBL Wellington branch would like to thank everyone who attended the service, the Rev Sam Griffiths and everyone at Wellington Baptist Church for helping us by setting up the Field of Remembrance at the church each year, and for the kindness and hospitality shown to us all following the service.

Peter Critchard